On the eve of the 2018 hurricane season, Nationwide is making a new venture capital investment to enhance its ability to write business and service claims leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) and drone technology. The company's investment in Betterview is part of its commitment to finance more than $100 million of venture capital in customer-centric solutions that help members.

"Drones and artificial intelligence will play a critical role in meeting the needs of our customers in the future of both underwriting and claims response. It's why we're so excited about this partnership with Betterview," said Scott Sanchez, Nationwide's chief innovation officer. "These capabilities will drive faster response in the wake of catastrophic events, enhanced underwriting sophistication for day-to-day business and a better overall experience for our members."

The Nationwide venture investment is being used to extend Betterview's machine learning platform across additional data sources to unlock valuable insight about commercial and residential properties for P&C insurers and reinsurers. Betterview's machine learning platform, generates data and analytics on building and property conditions, characteristics, and potential hazards by analyzing satellite, aerial, and drone imagery. This information can be used throughout an organization, from loss control and underwriting, to claims and catastrophe response.

"After assessing many other companies in the marketplace, we quickly noticed how Betterview's experience translated into significantly better software, services, and data for insurers like Nationwide," said Erik Ross, leader of Nationwide's venture capital team. "When we first met the team, their sole focus was on using drones to transform how buildings and properties were inspected. They have since evolved by enhancing artificial intelligence capabilities, building a mobile app, developing a roof risk score, and integrating various third-party data providers to put historical weather, property hazard risks, and building information at the customer's fingertips."

With the new investment in Betterview, Nationwide's venture capital team has made nine investments to date, including Nexar, Matic, blooom, Insurify, Next Insurance, as well as Sure.

Last August, Nationwide announced its commitment to invest more than $100 million of venture capital in customer-centric solutions that help members:

Live comfortably in retirement
Meet their insurance and financial needs in novel and digital ways
Protect their data and digital assets
Protect them in the evolving area of mobility
About Nationwide

Nationwide, a Fortune 100 company based in Columbus, Ohio, is one of the largest and strongest diversified insurance and financial services organizations in the U.S. and is rated A+ by both A.M. Best and Standard & Poor's. The company provides a full range of insurance and financial services, including auto, commercial, homeowners, farm and life insurance; public and private sector retirement plans, annuities and mutual funds; banking and mortgages; pet, motorcycle and boat insurance. For more information, visit www.nationwide.com.